Kansas City Chiefs

Kansas City Chiefs, American professional gridiron football team that is based in Kansas City, Missouri, and plays in the American Football Conference (AFC) of the National Football League (NFL). As a member of the American Football League (AFL)—which merged with the NFL in 1970—the franchise claimed three league championships (1962, 1966, and 1969). It later won Super Bowls IV (1970), LIV (2020), LVII (2023), and LVIII (2024).

Early years in Dallas and the move to Kansas City

The team, originally based in Dallas and known as the Texans, was one of eight founding franchises when the AFL came into existence in 1960. The Texans were owned by Lamar Hunt, who—after having been rebuked in his earlier attempt to purchase the NFL’s Chicago Cardinals—initiated the founding of the AFL by organizing other prospective NFL owners who had been turned down by the established league. Hunt hired Hank Stram to serve as the Texans’ first head coach, and Stram led the team to two middle-of-the-road finishes in its first two seasons.

The Texans brought in quarterback Len Dawson (like Stram, a future Hall of Famer) before the 1962 season, and Dallas went 11–3 that year, defeating the Houston Oilers in the AFL championship game.

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Despite the team’s success, the Dallas market was not able to sustain two football franchises (the other being the NFL’s Dallas Cowboys). Hunt decided to relocate the Texans to Kansas City in 1963.

The first Super Bowl

The newly renamed Chiefs began playing in Kansas City’s Municipal Stadium when they arrived in 1963. The team would share the stadium with some of the city’s other sports franchises. The Chiefs returned to the middle of the AFL West standings, where they remained until 1966. That season they again won 11 games and captured the AFL title. The Chiefs were then a part of one of the most historic moments in American football history when they faced off against the Green Bay Packers in the first annual AFL-NFL World Championship Game—what Hunt later renamed the “Super Bowl.” The Chiefs, however, lost what came to be known as Super Bowl I by the score of 35–10.

In 1969 the Chiefs featured the league’s leading defense—which starred future Hall of Famers Willie Lanier, Bobby Bell, and Buck Buchanan—and they once again won an AFL championship. That earned them a berth in the Super Bowl, where the Chiefs defeated the Minnesota Vikings in the final game ever played by an AFL franchise. (The two leagues merged in 1970.)

Kansas City made another playoff appearance in 1971, and in 1972 the team moved to its new stadium, called Arrowhead Stadium. But the Chiefs then posted losing records in 9 of the 14 seasons between 1972 and 1985, and they missed the postseason in each of those years.

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The Schottenheimer era

In 1989 the Chiefs hired head coach Marty Schottenheimer and drafted linebacker Derrick Thomas. Schottenheimer guided Kansas City to a playoff berth in his second season with the team, and in 1993, led by quarterback Joe Montana, the Chiefs advanced to the AFC championship game, which they lost to the Buffalo Bills.

With Thomas and defensive end Neil Smith anchoring a stout defense, the Chiefs won an NFL-best 13 games in 1995, but they were upset in their opening playoff contest by the Indianapolis Colts. The Chiefs tied for the best record in the league in 1997 but were again defeated in their first playoff game, this time by the division rival Denver Broncos. The team finished the 1998 season with a lackluster 7−9 record, and Schottenheimer subsequently resigned.

Ups and downs during the 2000s

After a five-year postseason drought, Kansas City—with a high-scoring offense featuring running back Priest Holmes and tight end Tony Gonzalez—again won 13 games and a division crown in 2003. Once again, a stellar regular season was followed by playoff disappointment as the Chiefs were again upset at home by the Colts.

The team then had a series of moderately successful years, including another postseason berth (and first-round loss) in 2006, before an abrupt slide resulted in a franchise-worst 2–14 record in 2008. A new front office and coaching staff were installed, which helped guide Kansas City back to the playoffs after the 2010 season.

However, that turnaround was short-lived, and the team changed its head coach late in Kansas City’s disappointing 2011 season. The 2012 campaign was even worse, with the Chiefs again finishing 2−14, and the team began to search for its third new coach in three seasons.

Reid, Mahomes, and Kelce

Under new head coach Andy Reid, the talent-laden Chiefs rapidly improved in 2013, winning 11 games and earning a playoff berth. The team then lost its opening playoff game, extending the franchise’s postseason victory drought to 20 years. Kansas City finally snapped its streak following the 2015 season when the Chiefs beat the Houston Texans 30–0 before being eliminated by the defending champion New England Patriots in the next round of the playoffs.

In 2016 the Chiefs won 12 games—the team’s best season in more than a decade—to capture a division title but once more lost in their opening playoff game. In 2017 Kansas City again won a division title only to be upset by the Tennessee Titans in their first-round playoff game.

Behind the play of second-year phenom quarterback Patrick Mahomes—whose favorite target was tight end Travis Kelce—the Chiefs featured the most explosive offense in the NFL in 2018 en route to posting a 12–4 record that was tied for the best in the conference. Kansas City won their first postseason contest but lost a dramatic AFC championship game to the Patriots in overtime.

Mahomes was limited by injuries in 2019, and the Chiefs’ offense was subsequently not as productive that season, but the team still won 12 games and hosted the AFC championship for a second consecutive year. This time, Mahomes led Kansas City to victory, sending the Chiefs to their first Super Bowl appearance in 50 years. There they came from behind in the fourth quarter to defeat the San Francisco 49ers, 31–20.

The Chiefs continued to dominate the league in 2020, winning an NFL-best 14 regular-season games. In the postseason the Chiefs narrowly beat the Cleveland Browns and then defeated the Buffalo Bills in the AFC championship game to advance to a second consecutive Super Bowl, where the Chiefs were defeated by the Tampa Bay Buccaneers.

Kansas City got off to a slow start in the 2021 season, posting a 3–4 record. However, the team then won eight consecutive games and qualified for the playoffs. For the fourth straight year, the team reached the AFC championship game, but it lost to the Cincinnati Bengals in overtime.

In 2022 the Chiefs continued their strong play, finishing the regular season with a 14–3 record. In the postseason Kansas City again faced the Bengals in the AFC championship game, but this time the Chiefs were victorious. For the third time in four years, Kansas City advanced to the Super Bowl, and the team defeated the Philadelphia Eagles on a field goal in the final seconds.

Kansas City had a dominant first half in 2023 but went just 4–4 in its last eight games. In the playoffs the Chiefs easily defeated the Miami Dolphins in a wild card game that was played in frigid temperatures. Kansas City then beat the Buffalo Bills and the Baltimore Ravens to return to the Super Bowl. There the team defeated the San Francisco 49ers in a thrilling overtime game, 25–22.

With this victory, the Chiefs became the eighth team to win back-to-back Super Bowls, and their third Super Bowl win (along with one loss) in five years led many to label the team a dynasty. “I don’t know what a dynasty is,” Reid told reporters after the game. “You guys have the thesaurus, so you can figure it out.”

The Chiefs maintained their winning ways in 2024, finishing with a 15–2 record. However, 11 of those victories were decided by one score, and the team’s offense struggled. Nevertheless, Kansas City continued to grind out wins. The Chiefs returned to the conference championship game for the seventh year in a row, where they defeated the Bills, 32–29. They faced the Eagles in the Super Bowl and had a chance to become the first three-peat champion in the Super Bowl era. However, Kansas City lost to Philadelphia, 40–22.

The 2025 season saw the Chiefs fail to qualify for the playoffs for the first time since 2014, snapping a decade-long streak of postseason appearances. The team finished the regular season in third place in the AFC West Division with a 6–11 record.

Controversy over the Chiefs’ name

After moving to Kansas City in 1963 and adopting the Chiefs as its name, the team leaned into its Native-themed brand identity: from 1963 to 1972 the team’s primary logo depicted a shirtless person wearing what resembles a Native warbonnet, and since 1963 the team’s helmets have displayed a logo in the shape of an arrowhead. A team mascot, a horse named Warpaint, was ridden during home games from 1963 to 1989 and again from 2009 to 2021.

For decades activists have criticized the team’s name and Native-themed imagery as racist caricatures that perpetuate stereotypes and as examples of cultural appropriation, and through protests and other actions they have called on the team to change them. In 2020 the franchise forbade fans to wear headdresses and certain forms of face paint at games, and it pledged “a thorough review process” of the fan chant it called the “Arrowhead Chop” (more widely known as the tomahawk chop). The team has said its name refers to the nickname of Kansas City’s mayor at the time the team moved there and has denied that the name originated as a reference to Native peoples.